Arts appreciation is Out There's religion, and the concert
hall is our synagogue. So the opening this week of the SFJazz Center
in Hayes Valley was righteous cause for spiritual
celebration. The Center is the first free-standing institution built for jazz
education and performance in the U.S., and its concert hall is a veritable
jewel-box, perfect for communing with jazz, our national art-form.

OT was in the house for the press opening. First came a
panel of SFJazz executive artistic director Randall Kline
, architect Mark Cavagnero
, acoustician Sam Berkow
, theatre designer Len Auerbach
, contractor Ed Conlon
, Latin percussionist John Santos
, and chef Charles Phan
, who will run the cafe. Then Santos and his band
played "All the Things You Are," and pressers were invited to move
around the auditorium to test out the acoustics. OT found a vantage point where
we could look down at the pianist's hands as he played, quite the catbird seat.
Kline said one goal for the room was to offer "the focus of a concert
hall, and the informality of a club," and there's clear promise of that
here.

Santos, one of SFJazz's resident artistic directors, referred
to the room's "spiritual connection," pointing out the music's roots
in church and gospel, and predicted, "There's going to be a lot of crying
moments in this room, I can tell already."

Laura Fraenza checks out the blue-and-white tile
"Jazz and the City" mural by Sandow Birk and Elyse Pignolet at the
SFJazz Center. Photo: Rick Gerharter

The building's large amount of glass brings the surrounding neighborhood
into the concert space, and vice versa. Kline said the design was going for
"welcome, warmth and community," and architect Cavagnero referenced Frank
Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple as a model.
Count us in as part of the congregation, already looking forward to
performances by lesbian jazz pianist Patricia Barber(3/3), resident artistic directors Brad
Mehldau(4/25-28) and Jason
Moran(5/2-5), among a
wealth of others. Whet your appetite at www.sfjazz.org.

Movie magic

British movie star Minnie Driver
was special guest in the house when the Mostly
British Film Festival screened its
opening-night attraction Hunky Dory at the Vogue Theatre in San
Francisco last Thursday. In the film, she plays a drama teacher at an English
working-class school who stages a student production of The Tempest
complete with musical interludes. The numbers
included lots of early David Bowie ("Life on Mars,"
"The Man Who Sold the World"), the schoolboys were adorable, and the
sold-out audience was enthusiastic. Opening night benefited the San
Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation,
helping to preserve neighborhood SF cinemas like the Vogue and the Balboa. More
power to them!

Femi forever

Our big cultural week wrapped up last Saturday night at the
Fillmore, where we went to see Nigerian pop musician Femi Kuti
with his big band the Positive Force
perform from their new album, No Place for My
Dream. Kuti and co. are plumbing the essence of Afrobeat, the music
pioneered by Femi's legendary father Fela Kuti in the late 1960s. Femi played a key role in celebrating the recent
opening of the Kalakuta Museum, which honors his father and his music in Lagos,
and was instrumental in bringing the hit Broadway show Fela! there.

At the Fillmore, Kuti was fierce on vocals, tenor and
soprano sax, and his band's energy never flagged under the Afrobeat sun. Live
music is our salvation, amen.

Sunset laws

Sunset Boulevard is
being shown as part of producer Eddie Muller's Noir City 11
at the Castro Theatre this week. It may interest you
to know that director Billy Wilder first discussed the iconic part
of Norma Desmond with Mae
West. West had not made a movie since 1943,
and it had not done well at the box office. She was 57 or 58 when Sunset
was made, and she declined, saying, "No one would believe me as a
has-been." West also rejected the idea of having to keep a young lover. As
far as she was concerned, she was more than desirable enough. Mary Pickford
also turned the part down, feeling it focused too
much on the young man. Norma Shearer also passed. Luckily, Gloria Swanson
accepted the role, and the rest was film history.